A wellness wave is sweeping across China. The seismic changes that have transformed the country over the past generation have left many feeling physically depleted, morally adrift, and spiritually bereft. This has prompted millions to seek out new ways of being well — exploring different religious traditions, signing up for yoga courses and New Age workshops, or turning to psychological counseling.

This rising demand for experiences that foster well-being and relief from the pressures of contemporary China has been a boon for independent Christian churches, Tibetan Buddhist teachers, spiritual training gurus, and psychotherapists. Meanwhile, the Chinese government is promoting its own version of wellness by reorienting the country’s healthcare system to focus on preventive care and fostering a more holistic understanding of what it means to be healthy — as a means of shoring up social stability. These efforts are now urgent after a recent wave of random violence — in many cases stemming from family disputes or financial problems — heightened the social unease lingering since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Join the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis (CCA) for a virtual discussion exploring the forces driving the modern Chinese quest to stay mentally healthy, become more spiritually alive, and find a moral compass to call one’s own. Panelists include Hsuan-Ying Huang, Associate Professor at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University; John Osburg, CCA Fellow on Chinese Society and Associate Professor at the University of Rochester; and Anna Iskra, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Copenhagen. The discussion will be moderated by G.A. Donovan, CCA Fellow on Chinese Society and Political Economy.

Speakers

Hsuan-Ying Huang is an Associate Professor at the Department of Medical Humanities and Education and the Institute of Public Health of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. He is a medical anthropologist with prior training in psychiatry. His work examines mental health care and mental well-being in the context of cross-cultural transfer and rapid socio-economic changes, with a focus on the development of psychotherapy and digital mental health in China. His articles have appeared in Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry; History of Psychiatry; China Perspectives; and a number of edited volumes.

Anna Iskra is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Culture and the Mind, University of Copenhagen, and a Lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. An anthropologist and China scholar, she has conducted research on self-improvement practices popular in urban China, including New Age spiritualities, Indian new religious movements, and psychological counselling, with a focus on how mental health sciences and transnational healing traditions intersect with state governance and influence the health and well-being of the Chinese middle class. Her work has been published in leading academic journals including China Information, Critical Asian Studies and positions.

John Osburg is a Fellow on Chinese Society at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis and an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Rochester. His book, Anxious Wealth: Money and Morality among China’s New Rich (Redwood City: Stanford University Press, 2013), examines elite state-business networks and documents the changing values, lifestyles, and consumption habits of China’s new rich and middle classes. In 2018, he was awarded an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship to support research examining the emergence of new forms of spirituality and religious practice among China’s middle class. Currently, he is completing a book tentatively titled Consuming Belief: Tibetan Buddhism and the Search for Meaning in Urban China. He has conducted several years of ethnographic research in urban China and published articles on topics including masculinity, consumer culture, political corruption, and Chinese state capitalism.

John received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Chicago and was a postdoctoral fellow in Chinese Studies at Stanford University. While conducting his field research in China, he enjoyed a brief stint as the cohost of a variety show on a provincial television station. 

G.A. Donovan (moderator) is a Fellow on Chinese Society and Political Economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. G.A. leads research initiatives on the social, cultural, and intellectual trends shaping China’s future. He experienced the country’s transformation firsthand while living and working in-country over the course of more than three decades. A former Foreign Service Officer, G.A. handled a broad range of political and economic issues as an American diplomat in Beijing, Chengdu, and Kathmandu. Subsequently, he was the senior researcher and assistant director at the Harvard Business School Asia-Pacific Research Center, traveling throughout China to conduct field research on business and financial topics. He also served as communications director and speechwriter for the CEO of Hong Kong’s securities commission.